The Windhover
I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Fal-con, in his ridingOf the rolling level underneath him steady air, andstridingHigh there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wingIn his ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing,As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:the hurl and glidingRebuffed the big wind. My heart in hidingStirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of thething!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, hereBuckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, abillionTimes told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough downsillionShine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
Words in this poem
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- billion n.
- According to the French and American method of numeration, a thousand millions, or 1,000,000,000; according to the English method, a million millions, or 1,000,000,000,000. See Numeration. [F. billion, arbitrarily formed fr. L. bis twice, in imitation of million a million. See Million.]
- chevalier n.
- A horseman; a knight; a gallant young man. [F., fr. LL. caballarius. See Cavaller.]
- plod v. i.
- To travel slowly but steadily; to trudge. [Gf. Gael. plod a clod, a pool; also, to strike or pelt with a clod or clods.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Windhover is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published, Project Gutenberg ebook #22403; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22403, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hopkins-poems/the-windhover.html, id L04382.
Form and metre
The Windhover is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is sprung rhythm, as Wikipedia: The Windhover has it. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 60% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in sprung rhythm.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-B-BAA-BBCA kingA · fal · ridingB · and · stridingB · wingA · swingA · bend · glidingB · hidingB · theC · thingA
- 2 DCED hereD · aC · billionE · chevalierD
- 3 -EDE down · sillionE · dearD · vermillionE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against sprung rhythm. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king- | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Fal- | 11 | ··/·/˘/˘··· |
| con, in his riding | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and | 14 | ··/˘/˘·˘/·/˘·· |
| striding | 2 | /˘ |
| High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing | 14 | ·············· |
| In his ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing, | 11 | ··········· |
| As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: | 10 | ·········· |
| the hurl and gliding | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding | 10 | ˘/······/˘ |
| Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the | 13 | ·····˘/··/˘·· |
| thing! | 1 | · |
| Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here | 13 | ·/˘·/˘······· |
| Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a | 11 | /˘··/······ |
| billion | 2 | /˘ |
| Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! | 13 | ······/˘···˘/ |
| No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| sillion | 2 | ·· |
| Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion. | 10 | ··˘/···˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.